Soul Archer
Although the typical soulknife wields a melee weapon from distilled psychic energy, there are some who choose to develop skills with ranged attacks. These soul archers, as they are sometimes known, excel at turning the power of their mind into arrows of energy. While many soul archers are capable wielding a mind blade, they are far more dangerous when they can shoot their arrows of energy. Some soul archers choose to wield what resemble bows of energy, while others simply fire bolts from their hands, yet all are equally dangerous despite their varied appearance. The more skilled among them have even learned to react to take advantage of momentary distraction to fire even within close range. Role: '''Soul archers are best suited as ranged combatants, although they have the durability to handle enemies directly for long enough to get back to a safe distance. Soul archers are at their best when they have companions to distract or block enemies from approaching, so that they can hurl death from afar. '''Alignment: '''There are all variety of soul archers, and thus a soul archer can be of any alignment. '''Hit Die: '''d10 '''Requirements To qualify to become a soul archer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. * Base attack bonus: '''+5 * '''Feats: '''Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot * '''Special: '''Enhanced Mind Blade or Enhanced Mind Bolt class feature. '''Note: '''Although the class features mentioned below mention the mind blade, for characters who form a mind bolt, such as the soulbolt archetype, the effects apply equally to them as well. '''Class Skills: '''The soul archer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex), and Survival (Wis). '''Skill Ranks at Each Level: '''4 + Int modifier. '''Class Features All of the following are class features of the soul archer. Weapon and Armor Proficiency Soul archers gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor. Mind Blade At each level indicated, the soul archer increases his soulknife level for the purposes of his Enhanced Mind Blade class feature. This does not grant the soul archer increased soulknife level for any other purposes (qualifying for blade skills, psychic strike, etc.), but see below. Form Mind Arrow A soul archer can choose to shape her mind blade as a semisolid arrow of psychic energy and forms a mind arrow as a free action. If the soul archer has the ability to make multiple attacks, he can create multiple mind arrows as part of an attack. The soul archer must have one hand free to create and fire a mind arrow. The arrow is identical in all ways (except visually) to an arrow shot from a composite longbow of a size appropriate to the soul archer. The soul archer adds his Wisdom modifier to the damage for attacks made with mind arrows, instead of his Strength modifier. The mind arrow receives all the benefits normally applied to the mind blade, including the ability to use psychic strike, any enhancement bonus or weapon special abilities, or feats that apply to the mind blade, although any melee-specific options are non-functional while in mind arrow form. Ranged feats that apply to ranged attacks, such as Point-Blank Shot, apply to the mind arrow. Any weapon special abilities that only work on melee weapons that apply to the mind blade are inactive while in mind arrow form until the soulknife spends the normal amount of time to reassign the special abilities of the mind blade. Ranged Blade Skill At 1st level and every two levels thereafter, the soul archer gains a blade skill. This blade skill can be selected from any blade skill that the soulbolt archetype can select for the mind bolt, except for the Alter Mind Bolt blade skill. When selecting this blade skill, the soul archer’s level is treated as his soulknife level plus his soul archer level. Ranged Feat A 2nd level soul archer gains a bonus feat of his choice. The feat chosen must have Point-Blank Shot as a prerequisite in order to be selected. Ranged Psychic Strike At 4th level and again at 8th level, the soul archer’s psychic strike damage when his mind blade is in mind arrow form increases by one die of damage. If the soul archer does not have the psychic strike ability, he gains the psychic strike ability, dealing 1d8 points of damage at 4th level and 2d8 points of damage at 8th level, but may only use this ability when his mind blade is in mind arrow form. Reflexive Shot (Ex) At 6th level, a soul archer can make attacks of opportunity with his mind arrows. The soul archer still only threatens squares he could reach with his mind blade or with unarmed strikes, but can still only make one attack of opportunity per round (unless he has additional sources of attacks of opportunity such as the Combat Reflexes feat). Phasing Shot (Su) Once a soul archer has achieved 8th level, he can expend his psionic focus and make a single ranged touch attack as a standard action and launch a mind arrow at a target within range. The mind arrow travels to the target in a straight path, passing through any nonmagical or nonpsionic barrier or wall on its way. (A wall of force, wall of fire, wall of ectoplasm, or the like stops a mind arrow.) This ability negates cover and concealment, but otherwise the attack is rolled normally. Empowered Shot (Su) At 10th level, the soul archer can expend his psionic focus to grant the effect of a single feat that requires focus expenditure to apply to all attacks in a full attack sequence that round. The feat must only work on ranged attacks. For example, if the soul archer has the Deep Impact feat, he can use this ability to treat all of the attacks in a full attack sequence as ranged touch attacks. Category:Source: Ultimate Psionics